CPC requires 'prudent' recruitment of new members

Armed police forces take an oath in front of the Party flag when being admitted to join the Communist Party of China.[Photo/IC]

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BEIJING - Revamped rules on recruitment of Communist Party of China (CPC) members will apply more stringent standards to management of Party members, the Organization Department of the CPC Central Committee vowed on Wednesday.

The General Office of the CPC Central Committee published detailed rules for recruiting new CPC members late on Tuesday, replacing the previous version, which had been effective for 24 years.

Under the new version, all localities and organizations are required to enlist new Party members in a "prudent" and "balanced" manner.

The Organization Department said in a statement that the revamp was motivated by the many new circumstances and problems that have emerged in enlistment of new members, and that have rendered the old version no longer adequate. At the same time, it said, some Party organizations are not strict enough with their enlistment.

The rules stipulate that efforts should be made to limit the size of the Party and to improve its structure and quality, requirements raised at a meeting of the CPC Central Committee Political Bureau on Jan. 28, 2013.

According to the Organization Department's statement, a key aspect of implementing the rules is to keep the overall size of the Party in check. Annual growth in the number of Party members should be moderate.

In a bid to improve the Party's structure, enlisting work should consider different social groups and professions, the statement said.

Furthermore, stringent discipline should also be applied in the daily management of Party members, who should be enterprising and play exemplary roles, according to the new regulations.

Xie Chuntao, a professor with the Party School of the Central Committee of the CPC, said that recent years have seen unqualified members infiltrate the Party, while both corrupt officials and those who are inactive should be weeded out.

Xie believes that a consensus has been reached within the Party that the quality of its members is more important than its size.

Therefore, on the one hand, unqualified Party members should be dismissed, a move that has already been carried out in trial runs, and on the other hand, the door must be kept shut to those who fall short of the standards, the professor said.

The new rules also highlighted the ideological credentials of Party members, providing that grass-roots Party organizations should absorb those who believe in Marxism, communism and socialism with Chinese characteristics, and those who practice socialist core values.

The rules also addressed the increasing number of migrant Party members, as China now boasts a migrant population of 250 million.

Under the rules, background checks on prospective new members of Party Organizations will not only consult their current employers and organizations, but also those in places in which they were previously registered.

China has more than 80 million CPC members.